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Book 5 Chapter 2
The party continues to head up Elysium's layers, stopping to rest after a few hours. Two hours into their rest, Venkra is awoken by the jar with the Mummy Lord's heart in it, which has reanimated the Mummy. After a brutal fight, nursing their wounds, the party gets the rest of their sleep. After the rest, they continue on their way, discussing their next move. Venkra and Drusilia no longer have the compulsion to stay on Elysium, so they decide to head back to the Beastlands. Retracing their previous route, they head past the fork in the River Oceanus, going past the T-Rex nest they encountered before. They continue through the forest, as a thundering noise gradually starts to get louder. As the noise approaches, they launch into the air with various means of flight, just in time to avoid a stampede of bison. After the herd passes, they continue forward onto a vast wide open area, with nothing in sight for as far as they can see. They set off in the direction of the phylactery, at Mittlefink's direciton. As they travel, they come across a simple wooden shack, 10 feet by 10 feet, with a plain wooden door. They open it, and inside they find a small staircase, leading 10 feet down. At the end of the stairs, they find another simple door. However, when opened, they see a vast void, filled with stars, galaxies, and an ever spiraling staircase both up and down. Dorian deduces that this must be the Infinite Staircase. They begin to debate whether to go into the staircase, or stay in the Beastlands. As they seem to be coming to the consensus that they should stay, the thundering noise from earlier begins to return. They fly up into the air, same as before, but the herd of bison stampedes right through the shack. After the bison pass, the party investigates the doorway again, finding that it is flickering. Although they had come to a consensus before, now that the entrance to the Staircase may be lost, the debate renews itself. As everyone else discusses what to do, Venkra and his Griffin head inside, forcing the rest of the party to follow them. The portal flickers off behind them. After a quick discussion, they decide to travel up the staircase, finding that no two stairs are the same, and that each stair has its own gravity. After traveling for a while, they find another door, when Dorian looks inside, it reminds him of his experience at the Spellweaver's tower. He states that this must be Mechanus. They decide that it's the best option, and head on through. On the other side of the portal, the party finds themselves among a seemingly infinite number of cogs, some turn quickly, others turn imperceptibly slow. Mittlefink locates the phylactery on Mechanus, and they cautiously set off towards it. Venkra trys to climb up a vertically aligned cog, but as soon as he starts to climb, his orientation switches, and he no longer feels like he is climbing, but that he is crawling. Dorian states that perhaps gravity is aligned to each cog. They travel in this way for hours, without encountering anyone. Then, as they come to the top of another cog, a strange looking creature approaches them. It is a short, brown, pyramid shape, with an eye on each side, and when questioned by the party, all it would say was "That is not my function." the only piece of information it gives out is that their is a huge factory, and that is where the party should go to find its superiors. The direction it points to is the same direction that Mittlefink says the phylactery is in. They travel until they are too tired to continue, and then they rest...